Looking for a good CD player

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cyclotronguy

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Joined 2001
Travis,

Sorry, details are a bit foggy; this was done last spring. We bought several at the local techno-geek store (Frys).

Brought them back to the shop and replaced all the electrolytic caps with some Panasonic switching power supply caps of roughly the same value. Coupling caps were changed for some Wima's.

Metal film UV caps across H-N-G.

Soft recovery diodes in the power-supply

Random optimization of generic product at it’s most basic level.

Found ourselves a couple of victims who lacked music in their life……and gave them away.

Cyclotronguy
 
PAM

PAM

Member
Joined 2002
CD player

I would buy a Marantz CD 80 and modify it.

The CD-transport CDM-1 is the best ever made by Philips.
During a listening test of a Wadia 16 ($$$) and my CD 80 it was clear that the CD 80 as CD-transport was better then the stand alone Wadia 16 with the TEAC transport.
 
DRC

DRC

Member
Joined 2003
Marantz/Phillips cd6000

Cards on the table - I have not actually heard one but I have seen numerous commendations for it. There are several variants (OSI / KI etc) but the base model, if you can find one, should be in your price range. Cheapest I could find in the UK was 208GBP for an OSI model. I believe there is also a Dutch company who fit this model with transformer / tube outputs (Heart Audio / Rik Stoet) and claim great things ...

I was going to buy a CD6000 but then got offered a secondhand CD player for peanuts that had cost a small fortune new. :idea:
Dave
 
UrSv

UrSv

Member
Joined 2002
Bricolo said:



I never said I wanted a true audiophile CD player
I "just" want something nice in my pricerange


A cheap one (under 300) that can be tweaked to sound great, would be perfect :)
Click to expand...

IMHO it is not true that you can't get a good player for EUR 300. Maybe not the best player in the world but definitely good. Most well-knownbrands produce excellent players in that price range. I would almost buy anything made by say Denon, NAD, Marantz, Sony, HK, Philips and some others. Be a little bit pragmatic and don't believe that Player A at EUR 295 kicks a** and Player B at EUR 295 is totally worthless. IMHO most of the players offer great sound but one of them might suit you perfectly and the other not that well. Listen to a few and rest assured that it is OK and that you will be able to tweak it to sound even better. If you are a student I would assume that what you have or will get surrounding that CD player is not going to be EUR 10.000 worth of stuff either.

The idea to get a CD-Pro2 at roughly EUR 500 which is nowhere near a finshed player does not really fit a EUR 300 budget, does it?

Another suggestion unless you already have it is to get a DVD player whill will mean a couple of things. First it will mean that I will probably get flamed for even suggesting a thing like that since *obviously* it would sound unlike any form of Hi-Fi (not quite right IMO). Second it will mean that you have player that can be used as CD player. Third it will be well suited to act as a transport only when you build your first DAC. Fourth it will be a DVD player which will mean that you can watch movies (not insigificant). Fifth it will most likely be excellent to tweak.

If you don't plan on any HT then obviously a dedicated CD player is usually better.
 
chris ma

chris ma

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Joined 2001
ca.geocities.com/chrismaatnetcom_ca/The_Butcher_Page.html
I second that DVD player options too, the latest cheapie dvd players have the latest dac chip goes up to 192kz, sound like you are not using dedicated dac for now, but if you do in the future then you can use the DVD player as transport provided it has digital output...;)

Chris

Edit: coax digital output I meant, not toslink, you don't want to go with toslink..
 
M

massimo

Member
Joined 2002
Bricolo said:
the only marrantz I've seen in shops here, are the cd4000 and cd5000

and I've heard they are philips 723 and 753, with an other box, and a marrantz label
Click to expand...


Yes, they are. At least the CD4000 is the 723 for sure: I own a CD4000!
The only mods, aesthetic aside, are 4 Elna Cerafine caps used in the output stage: 2 for PS decoupling and 2 cfor signal coupling.

But the Vam1202/ShortLoader MkIII isn't that bad......
In the MkIII board they replaced the ceramic resonator with a quartz crystal and updated one or two ICs and now it can play recordable CDs
 
protos

protos

Member
Joined 2002
I think it's a big shame and waste of money to buy new hi-fi components especially if you are also a DIYer.You can get an as new player for about less than half the price it cost new and start tweaking it to hell at your pace and pocket capacity.If you know which model you want you will almost certainly find one available.Then you can add clocks , caps ,op-amps,power supplies and really feel you got your moneys worth. Plus don't forget that if you buy a used component that you don't like you can probably unload it at the same price you bought it .
 
DRC

DRC

Member
Joined 2003
DVD player

I had a bad experience while using a cheapish sony DVD for audio. I though the onboard DAC did not sound right, so I hooked it up to another DAC and that was almost as bad :bawling: Also, I had plenty of music CD's that would not play at all :bawling: To finish off this horror story the DVD controls were hidious needing a 2 second press for anything to happen and taking 30 seconds to start playing a CD :bawling: :bawling:

My guess was that the drive was maginal at reading CD's and was producing rather a lot of errors (or maybe jitter ?). The sound playing DVD's was much more acceptable (onboard and outboard DAC) and the picture quality was great !

Dave (and his 2p/2c)
 
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